Mary Ward
Marissa Haag, 3A - May 2023
She was born on 23rd January 1585 and died on 30th January 1645. She was born at a time of great conflict for Roman Catholics in England. She lived with her grandmother from 1589 to 1594 who also taught her Latin. Sadly, her family home burned down in 1595, so they had to move. In 1598, on the eighth of September, Mary Ward took her first Communion. Time went by and when she was 24 years old, she experienced God‘s voice the first time. Apparently, she heard the words “Glory, Glory, Glory”. It directed her towards a religious life, but it was not an easy path, even with the support from her family and friends. Her father wanted her to marry someone, but she refused with the words “one who already esteemed only God as worthy of her love”. In 1606 she left England in order to enter a monastery of Poor Clares in northern France. In March 1607, a Franciscan visitor told her that it was not God’s will that she should remain as an extern sister there. After that she founded her own monastery specifically for English women. At this time, women in the Catholic church lived an enclosed life. But she did not accept that and said, “There is no such difference between men and women that women, may they not do great things? And I hope in God that it may be seen in time to come that women will do much”. Their monastery was a religious community and they opened over 200 schools for girls, mostly in Germany and Austria. Of course, the sisters taught the girls there. The sisters in her religious community were called “Galloping Girls”. Popes Paul V, Gregory XV and Urban VIII had praised her work, and in 1629 she was allowed to plead her cause in person before the congregation of cardinals to examine the situation. Mary Ward went to Rome about five to six times. From 1631 to 1637 she was imprisoned in the monastery on orders from the Pope. While she was there, she relied on her religious followers to continue running the schools, using coded letters written in lemon juice as invisible ink. When she was free again, she went to London and she and the sisters founded free schools for the poor, nursed and the sick ones. She died during the English Civil War. Her last words were “Cherish God’s vocation in you”.
The school year of 2022/23 from my perspective
Maximilian Haindl, 3A - 2023
A school year is never easy and so this one wasn’t either. I am sure everyone of us had problems this year and not only we but of course also the world had some; but one of the most important things in life is to focus on the good and not on the bad. Problems are also thorny challenges where you can show what you can do. For me and for sure for many other people at my school, in my country and worldwide it was the first “normal” school year in a long period of time. It was the year without masks, without the Corona test every morning and without online school. I am very confident that all of us are happy that the pandemic has nearly disappeared. These are not the only new things for many of the students because some of them started their first year (which is, in my opinion, the most interesting one) and some students started their last. The year was marked by many new things we learned, things we changed and things that were great. In my experience this year was also good for our class as a community because we saw each other many more times and I think that is very important for us. I feel this year wasn’t only a year during which we improved our school education, I think it was also a year that improved our personalities. With this in mind, I wish you all relaxing and great summer holidays!
